Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A28061
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Certain miscellany works of the Right Honourable Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban published by VVilliam Ravvley ...; Selections. 1670
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Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing B275; ESTC R21950
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51,907
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63
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he said himself from Page So he had brought his People from Lacquay Not to run up and down for their Laws to the Civil Law and the Ordinances and the Customs and the Discretions of Courts and discourses of Philosophers as they use to do King Henry the Eighth in the twenty seventh year of his Reign was authorized by Parliament to nominate 32 Commissioners part Ecclesiastical and part Temporal To purge the Canon Law and to make it agreeable to the Law of God and the Law of the Land But it took not effect For the Acts of that King were commonly rather Proffers and Fames than either well grounded or well pursued But I doubt I erre in producing so many examples For as Cicero said to Caesar so may I say to your Majesty Nil vulgare te dignum videri possit Though indeed this well understood is far from Vulgar For that the Laws of the most Kingdoms and States have been like Buildings of many pieces and patched up from time to time according to occasions without Frame or Model Now for the Laws of England if I shall speak my Opinion of them without partiality either to my Profession or Country for the Matter and Nature of them I hold them Wise Just and Moderate Laws They give to God they give to Caesar they give to the Subject what appertaineth It is true they are as mixt as our Language compounded of British Roman Saxon Danish Norman Customs And surely as our Language is thereby so much the richer So our Laws are likewise by that Mixture the more compleat Neither doth this attribute less to them than those that would have them to have stood out the same in all Mutations For no Tree is so good first set as by transplanting and Grafting I remember what happened to Callisthenes that followed Alexanders Court and was grown into some displeasure with him because he could not well brook the Persian Adoration At a Supper which with the Grecians was a great part Talk he was desired the King being present because he was an Eloquent Man to speak of some Theme Which he did And chose for his Theme the praise of the Macedonian Nation Which though it were but a filling Thing to praise Men to their Faces yet he performed it with such advantage of Truth and avoidance of Flattery and with such Life as was much applauded by the Hearers The King was the less pleased with it not loving the Man and by way of discountenance said It was easie to be a good Oratour in a pleasing Theme But saith he to him Turn your stile And tell us now of our faults that we may have the profit and not you the praise only Which he presently did with such Quickness that Alexander said That Malice made him Eloquent then as the Theme had done before I shall not fall into either of these extreams in this subject of the Laws of England I have commended them before for the Matter but surely they ask much amendment for the Form Which to reduce and perfect I hold to be one of the greatest Dowries that can be confer'd upon this Kingdom Which Work for the Excellency as it is worthy your Majesties Act and Times So it hath some circumstance of Propriety agreeable to your Person God hath blessed your Majesty with Posterity And I am not of opinion that Kings that are barren are fittest to supply Perpetuity of Generations by perpetuity of Noble Acts But contrariwise that they that leave Posterity are the more interessed in the Care of Future Times That as well their Progeny as their People may participate of their Merit Your Majesty is a great Master in Justice and Judicature And it were pity the fruit of that your Vertue should not be transmitted to the Ages to come Your Majesty also reigneth in learned times the more no doubt in regard of your own perfection in Learning and your Patronage thereof And it hath been the Mishap of Works of this Nature that the less Learned Time hath sometimes wrought upon the more Learned Which now will not be so As for my self the Law was my Profession to which I am a Debter Some little helps I have of other Arts which may give Form to Matter And I have now by Gods merciful Chastisement and by his special Providence time and leisure to put my Talent or half-Talent or what it is to such Exchanges as may perhaps exceed the Interest of an Active Life Therefore as in the beginning of my Troubles I made offer to your Majesty to take pains in the Story of England and in compiling a Method and Digest of your Laws So have I performed the first which rested but upon my self in some part And I do in all humbleness renew the offer of this latter which will require Help and Assistance to your Majesty if it shall stand with your good pleasure to imploy my Service therein THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF KING Henry the Eighth LONDON Printed by J. M. for Humphrey Robinson and Sold by William Lee 1670. THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF KING Henry the Eighth AFter the Decease of that Wise and Fortunate King Henry the VII who died in the Height of his Prosperity there followed as useth to do when the Sun setteth so exceeding clear one of the fairest Mornings of a Kingdom that hath been known in this Land or any where else A young King about 18 years of Age for Stature Strength Making and Beauty one of the goodliest Persons of his time And though he were given to Pleasure yet he was likewise desirous of Glory So that there was a passage open in his Mind by Glory for Vertue Neither was he un-adorned with Learning though therein he came short of his Brother Arthur He had never any the least Pique Difference or Jealousie with the King his Father which might give any occasion of altering Court or Counsel upon the change but all things passed in a Still He was the first Heir of the White and the Red Rose So that there was no discontented Party now left in the Kingdom but all Mens Hearts turned towards him And not only their Hearts but their Eyes also For he was the only Son of the Kingdom He had no Brother which though it be a comfortable thing for Kings to have yet it draweth the Subjects Eyes a little aside And yet being a married Man in those young years it promised hope of speedy Issue to succeed in the Crown Neither was there any Queen Mother who might share any way in the Government or clash with his Counsellours for Authority while the King intended his pleasure No such thing as any Great and Mighty Subject who might any way eclipse or overshade the Imperial Power And for the people and State in general they were in such lowness of obedience as Subjects were like to yield who had lived almost four and twenty years under so politique a King as his Father Being also one who came partly in by the Sword And had so high a Courage in all points of Regalitie And was ever victorious in Rebellions and Seditions of the People The Crown extreamly rich and full of Treasure and the Kingdom like to be so in short time For there was no War no Dearth no Stop of Trade or Commerce it was only the Crown which had sucked too hard and now being full and upon the head of a young King was like to draw less Lastly he was Inheriter of his Fathers Reputation which was great throughout the World He had streight Alliance with the two Neighbour States an ancient Enemy in former times and an ancient Friend Scotland and Burgundy He had Peace and Amity with France under the Assurance not only of Treaty and League but of Necessity and Inhability in the French to do him hurt in respect that the French Kings Designs were wholly bent upon Italy So that it may be truly said there had scarcely been seen or known in many Ages such a rare Concurrence of Signs and Promises of a happy and flourishing Reign to ensue as were now met in this young King called after his Fathers name HENRY the Eighth c. FINIS Characters of the Persons Eusebius beareth the Character of a Moderate Divine Gamaliel of a Protestant Zelant Zebedaeus of a Romish Catholick Zelant Martius of a Militar Man Eupolis of a Politick Pollio of a Courtier